Poetry: Selections from Edward Lee

Like Stone

I built a statue of you

from my tears,

an effigy I could worship

and mourn

as the waves of your absence

rose and fell, like stone

still solid, and yet

still somehow able to flow.

 

But no statute of tears

could hold its form

for long, collapsing into itself

before flooding

the room we once loved in,

drowning me

to the point of death,

receding before my final breath,

leaving me to gasp

for air I did not want.

 

Fully recovered

I rebuilt your statue

from stale tears

mixed with fresh,

waiting for it

to collapse again

so I might dive deep

into you, my final breath

made solid like stone,

stone this time

refusing to flow.

Never Your Fault

Taking a breath

from screaming at the sky,

a lightning bolt

split the new silence

and rushed towards you.

 

You jumped out of the way,

but the bolt jumped with you,

burning through your body

like all your collected sins

finally demanding your penance,

knowing, as it did,

that you would jump,

even before you knew,

your skill of self-preservation

and your avoidance of responsibility

always a sight to behold.

 

As fire consumed you

from the inside out,

you began to scream again,

though this scream,

this time, was entirely justified.

I Miss You

Sleepwalking while awake

I find myself

at your door,

though you haven't

lived behind it

in years.

 

My hand rises,

finger extended

to ring the doorbell

that wasn't here

when you were.

 

I press

and hear

the ring echoing into

the past of you and I,

 

the past

in which

you were alive

and the world

on my side of the door

did not exist.

Edward Lee's poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, A Thin Slice Of Anxiety, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales. His poetry collections are Playing Poohsticks On Ha’Penny Bridge, The Madness Of Qwerty, A Foetal Heart and Bones Speaking With Hard Tongues. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy.